A Rain Delay?

Our final day of running through the competitions meant hiking up the ramp to the BMX course. On a cloudy but very humid day in Beijing, that hike isn't the most fun in the world.

So the run through went almost exactly like the ones we had already done for track cycling and mountain biking, with a fake competition being run, the flash quote reporters (us) taking quotes from the fake athletes, then running them down to our office to get them posted on the database for journalists. The only difference this time around was that the powers that be threw a wrench in the mix by declaring a "rain delay" and having the crews cover the track to keep the dirt dry for competition. Parts of the course were covered pretty quickly, but hopefully they can run that a couple more times this week if they want to really keep the course dry.

BMX is really going to be one of the more exciting events this year. It's been compared the the kind of revival that the Winter Olympics got when they allowed snowboarding. It gives legitimacy to the sport and brings in a sport that will draw a younger audience to the Olympics. While mountain biking offers technical expertise and track cycling gives you the thrill of pure speed, BMX takes the best of the two and throws them together down a four-story tall starting ramp and over jumps. The American contingent, consisting of Mike Day, Donny Robinson, Kyle Bennett and Jill Kintner, will be favored for medals, with Americans taking all three in the men's race not out of the question. Riders from New Zealand and other European riders are strong, but the Americans have been training for months on an exact replica of the Beijing track in California, so they have to have an advantage on the competition.

Unlike the other cycling disciplines on display in the Olympics, the BMX competition doesn't offer several variances or races, just the main race around the track that is split up into several qualifying races before the finals. Speed will be the key for a win on this course, but also the number and size of the jumps will mean any loss in momentum will be disastrous for competitors.

On the pictures, one is a diagram to give you an idea of the course. The other is taken underneath the riders as they fly over the largest jump on the course right before the second turn. The jump actually goes over the turn that the women will use, lengthening the course and adding another jump for the men's race.